Only one reader asked to have Irish Sun’s page 3 girls returned

For decades The Sun newspaper and its Irish sister publication The Irish Sun have printed glamor shots of topless models on page three of their papers. It's been a lure for some and a throwback to 1970s style sexism for others, but this week it looks like it has finally come to an end.

According to the Irish Times page three no longer shows bare breasts. This week the tabloid featured former Miss World Rosanna Davison and Dutch model Sylvie van der Vaart, but both wearing bikini tops and bottoms.

'Page Three is a hugely popular pillar of the Sun in the UK and part of a package of great journalism which engages, entertains and informs in equal measure,' says Paul Clarkson, editor of the Irish Sun told the press.

'In the Irish Sun we strive to share the qualities that make the newspaper great in print and digital, but we also strive to cater for our own readers’ needs and reflect the cultural differences in Ireland.'

But Dublin is not London and although the paper received some phone calls asking about the change, only one reader reportedly demanded to have page three toplessness return.

In the UK the battle to keep the page safe for glamour shots is still being waged, however. Editor of the UK Sun, David Dinsmore, recently told the press he intended to keep publishing topless pictures because they were a 'good way of selling newspapers.'

But a campaign by the group No More Page Three has gathered more than 110,000 signatures while 138 UK parliamentary ministers have signed a letter to Dinsmore saying they 'cannot remain silent in the presence of a page that limits and misrepresents over half the population.'

In a letter to the paper's publisher the ministers wrote that The Sun 'reduces this country to one that upholds 1970's sexist values.'

In return Dinsmore sniffed that the signatories are people who 'have never read the Sun' while former editor Dominic Mohan said the topless photograph was an 'innocuous British institution.'